The present invention relates to an ink fountain, incorporating individually regulated metering segments, for a printing machine.
Inking fountains for a printing machine are already known which comprise a vat containing ink, this vat being delimited, on one side, by a horizontal inking roller driven in rotation, on the opposite side, by a body extending parallel to the inking roller, and lateraly, by two vertical cheeks. The body bears, in the immediate proximity of the peripheral surface of the inking roller, a doctor blade parallel to the inking roller and which is formed by a succession of metering segments adjacent one another and of which the upper edges extend parallel to the inking roller at a short distance from the peripheral surface thereof, this distance being able to be adjusted individually for each metering segment. These metering segments are fixed to the body, at their lower parts, by means of screws and they are actuated individually by pusher elements extending through the body and which are controlled, for example, by regulating levers or motorized assemblies. It is thus possible, with the aid of thesepusher elements, to place the upper part of each individual metering segment more or less close to the peripheral surface of the inking roller and thus to adjust the thickness of the film of ink passing between the upper edge of the metering segment in question and the peripheral surface of the inking roller. Such an ink fountain is described for example in French Patent Application No. 2 471 863.
Ink fountains of this type present a certain number of drawbacks, particularly from the point of view of maintenance and replacement of the metering segments. In fact, when it is necessary to dismantle the ink fountain, to change the metering segments for example, the whole of the ink fountain must effectively be dismantled in order to have access to the metering segments. Furthermore, a change of these segments necessarily involves new adjustments of the pusher elements controlling the individual segments.